War Criminals
by Rogue The Phantom
Summary: When radiation changes human anatomy giving some humans control over elemental power, Serena and friends will fight off the Mobile Suite Faction for control of the planet. While Treize Khushrenada fights to control the Elementals and their powers, Heero, Serena and friends will fight to end the use of mobile suits and fill the planet with peace once more.
1. Present Day

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing characters or the world they live in. I haven't really written a fan fic in a while so I would love to hear what you have to say. Please feel free to PM me with any suggestions or comments. Thanks for stopping by.

RogueXOXO

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Present Day

"Serena run!" Mina shouted taking off down the deserted street avoiding the rubble blocking her path. I could feel the thud of heavy footfalls behind me rumbling the ground and making it difficult to stand. Part of me wondered who it was. Could it be Duo and the Deathscythe, chasing after us in his impossibly strong suit? Perhaps Heero on the ground with his pistol aimed at her heart. Some days I wished he'd just pull the trigger. Perhaps it was Darien and his shoulder Gatling gun, deadlier since it connected straight to his brain and with his Earth Elemental powers. Maybe he'd be the one to stop the pain in my heart.

A building crumbled, falling around beside me and I rolled out of the way. Blonde hair wrapped around me like a golden cocoon tripping me up as I tried to pull myself off the ground. Mina turned, her own cream soda hair curling around her and dropping into my face. Mina could have been my sister with the same cornflower eyes that always held worry and concern, something I hadn't been known for. The graceful older girl gripped my upper arm with more strength than her petite body should have been capable of and hoisted me off the ground.

"We have to run," she hissed as another footfall rattled windowpanes. Glass shattered in a shower around us.

I nodded trying not to trip as I ran along behind her.

I remembered a time when the world hadn't been crumbling apart, when monster machines didn't hunt those of us who didn't understand how to use them. A time before those of us who'd been affected by the radiation had to go into hiding. That was before I woke up with the ability to bend the light into a power that would change someone's heart, a power that could kill. That was the day radiation exploded around the world.

Three Years Ago

Sunlight glittered off blades of grass. The courthouse felt alive as people moved about walking their dogs, listening to street musicians, and just enjoying the warm Arizona weather. Monsoon season always brought out the best in everyone. The intense one hundred degree days would cool as rain fell in short bursts, the sticky humidity the only side effect. Trees and grass seemed to glow like emeralds instead of looking near death.

"We're going to be late," Darien called walking over. Jet black hair fell in dark eyes and he swept them out of the way shading his eyes from the sun. He looked at me with a perfect grin carrying a small basket.

"Late for what?" I sighed laying back and watching the grey clouds drift past. Soon they'd fill the sky and large droplets would flood street corners.

"Late for the meeting," he replied taking a seat next to me. Even sitting he towered over me a good eight inches.

"I don't to go." I frowned rolling away from him.

He sighed as if he talking to a child. "You have to go or you're going to miss signing up for school."

"I'm already signed up for school," I countered trying not to pout. He was right. I needed to go to the school and get my classes sorted out for my senior year next month. I didn't need him to remind me that I would have to take extra classes to make sure I would graduate.

"You know what I mean." He lifted a long lock of hair and tickled my arm with it. Darien Chiba had been the love of my life since I was fourteen, though he was older than me. My eighteenth birthday would be in a couple of month where Darien had recently turned twenty three.

"Yes. I know what you mean," I sighed pushing off the grass. Automatically Darien lifted an arm to steady me though I didn't need it this time. Lately I hadn't felt as awkward and clumsy.

"You want some lunch first before you head over there?" He lifted the wicker basket, a white and red checkered blanket hanging over the edge in a picturesque way that reminded me of Normal Rockwell magazine covers my grandma had kept in storage. I looked him over with his black t-shirt and shorts. Always the same color every day. Nothing every seemed to change in Prescott.

"I always want food!" I cheered excited for something that would stall heading over to the school. Darien chuckled lifting the blanket. Beneath it sat containers of various lunch foods. He handed me a paper plate and piled potato salad and fried chicken on top.

Overhead birds cawed as they flew past. The clouds grew darker shifting closer together so quickly I could see the movements. I could smell the rain, fresh like newly cut grass and dusty earth. I always loved the smell just before it rained. Darien looked concerned glancing up at the clouds. It didn't matter to me if it rained or not. A little water didn't hurt anyone.

Darien groaned sliding dirty dishes back into the wicker basket. His stomach, though lean, bulged a bit from eating his fill. I laughed helping to clean up the mess. I'd eaten at least twice what he had and didn't feel full, a fact I almost prided myself on. We continued replacing lids on containers and collecting trash. A drop fell on my arm splattering in a wet trickle that made me look down.

"Want a ride? It's starting to rain," Darien offered helping me off the ground. I frowned looking at my bike while brushing the grass and other debris off my shorts.

"That's okay I'll…" The ground shook cutting off my sentence. I fell forward into Darien's arms as the trees continued to shake. The trees rattled in an unfamiliar way reminding me of maracas.

"An earthquake?" Darien frowned looking around. People remained standing, the shaking not nearly bad enough to knock everyone off their feet though surprised looks filled every face I could see.

"Can you even remember the last time Prescott had an earthquake?" I asked watching people run to their cars.

Darien shook his head. "No. If there had been one it wasn't bad enough for anyone to feel it."

"Maybe I should just head home," I said looking wearily at my bike. Rain pelted the ground faster, harder than before and I could feel my hair sticking to my head.

"I'll give you a ride," he said pulling me towards the black sports car he drove. Before we could get very far the earth shook again and I fell. Darien danced around trying to remain standing. After a few seconds of fumbling he fell rolling on top of me. Branches dropped out of the trees, several of the statues falling over.

As suddenly as the quake began it stopped. Darien lifted his head allowing me an opportunity to look around and breathe. In the still I could see a golden ring. It burst around us, long enough to cover the entire earth. Power shook me to my core as the ring passed through me giving me a cool chill. Darien grunted in pain doubling over clutching his chest. My heart raced thundering in my ears.

Electricity flew through my veins. I could see light spreading through my arms and legs causing my skin to glow. Darien's face grew dark as the light ring disappeared over the horizon. He rolled off of me dropping to the ground in a painful thud. I felt weak, my limbs shaking. My stomach churched violently as Darien gasped for air.

"Are you alright?" He breathed hard clutching his chest. His normally tanned skin looked pale, green even.

"I…I don't know," I replied trying to keep everything I'd just eaten in my stomach which seemed to roll even though I didn't move. Pressure filled my head. "What-"

"I don't know. Come on. Let's get you home." He staggered as he tried to stand attempting to help me up in the process. We fumbled around unsteady on our feet.

"Normally I'm the clumsy one." I tried to joke hefting Darien off the ground as best I could. His much larger frame felt heavier against my petite form and I struggled to hold him upright. It just seemed too much for him to hold his own weight up alone.

"I feel-strange," he breathed. Every breath seemed shallow and forced. My own breathing felt labored as if a weight lay on my chest.

"So do I," I said feeling my knees knocking together under the strain. Somewhere sirens sounded and I looked at the scene around me. Statues that had been at the courthouse for nearly a century lay in shattered pieces. Branches covered the ground, an entire tree lying across the courthouse steps. Several buildings around had crumbled, debris falling into the streets.

Darien drug himself towards the car using me as a crutch. I could feel my own legs giving beneath his heavy weight and the weakness from whatever had happened. People screamed as they ran away from cracking buildings that sounded as if they would collapse at any moment. The building in front of us rumbled. Pieces of the building fell onto the ground with a crunch. Car sirens filled the silence as debris slammed into metal.

"Darien! Serena! Get out of the way," Rei's voice reached us from across the way. I could see my best friends standing at the end of the street. She held onto a stranger limping with blood drooling down her own leg. Above us I could see a large piece of the building falling. My heart sped and I trembled unsure what to do. It fell so quickly I knew we wouldn't be able to get out of the way.

Darien grunted pushing me beneath him. As he did the asphalt seemed to split around us. Pieces of earth lifted into the air forming a shield that arched above Darien. The debris crashed down with me wrapped tightly in Darien's free arm. His second seemed hold the pieces of earth up.

"What just? How did? Darien?" I couldn't complete my sentence. There was no way to described what had just happened. If I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it.

"I don't know. I wanted to save you and as I brought my arm up the earth came up too," he said lowering his arm. As he did the asphalt returned to the ground, broken and out of place, but no longer a wall in the air.

"Did you just see-," Raye began setting the man she'd been dragging on the ground. Her raven hair stuck out in places, brown where dust had settled.

"I know," Darien replied sitting on the curb. For a while we sat and listened to the car alarms and sirens from the rescue vehicles. Debris continued to fall around us crashing into the street and squishing cars. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't find anything to say. Darien made the earth move. We would never be able to explain that.


	2. War Criminals

War Criminals

"Ms. Chibiusa are you saying that your people can keep their powers under control?" Governor Brewer frowned looking me over. Her hair had gone white in the last year, a subtle change from the champagne blonde of her younger years.

"I am saying that we can keep our powers under control. Schools have been set up to teach newcomers how to use their elements. If you force them into your Control Act, make them participate in your armies, they'll disappear underground," I said. All lights seemed to be shining on me, blinding me from the lone podium where I stood. The crowd gathered around me seemed too large. People from all over the world gathered at the capital building in Phoenix to watch the debate. The sheer volumes of people made me nervous.

"Where is Darien? He is your leader, isn't he?" She demanded. I frowned wondering the same thing. Darien had been the first to discover his Earth Elemental power, the first to hone his ability and the first to come out that he had it. As a result he'd been elected our spokes person keeping him busier than ever.

"He's in another meeting," I lied hoping that she wouldn't see me bite my cheek as I did. Lying had never been something I was good at. "The point is we don't need to be controlled. We can do good for the people, but we don't need to be forced into the military. Isn't that what your suits are for?"

She cringed at the mention of the larger-than-life metal suits that had been created for military use. They had been the reason radiation had filled the air the day Arizona experienced its biggest earthquake ever. The reason some of the world's population had experienced control over elements. The world had changed that day, most cities destroyed in the blast of radiation that shot into the air. Things were slowly starting to get back to a sense of normalcy, but nothing would ever be the same.

"The suits don't think for themselves," she replied pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "The last Water Elemental here pushed so much water into Arizona we experienced a _real_ flood, something Arizona doesn't deal with. Ever. People lost homes, lives. We aren't equipped to deal with unnatural elements in our state."

"One person doesn't act for the rest of us," I replied frowning at the reference. I knew what she meant. A Water Elemental, who didn't understand his power, pulled water into the Colorado River flooding all of Arizona and into Utah in an attempt to water the scorched desert. The results were devastating, but since then Darien had set up schools around the country to teach Elementals how to use their powers. "We know that powers manifest themselves in early teenage years. Parents have been taught to recognize the signs. We are doing what we can to inform people."

"It doesn't always start in adolescence and you know it. There have been plenty of adults who have discovered their powers and it's been a year since Radiation," Governor Brewer argued smoothing out the wrinkles around her lips.

"Those seem to be anomalies. If the powers hadn't appeared within a month of Radiation then they don't have them," I argued. My voice had nearly become a grunt in my frustration. I hadn't been prepared for this argument. Darien had and I didn't know much of the statistics that he had sat up late discovering. Sleep had been more important.

"How can you even keep track of who does have them? Is there some sort of system?" Another asked. Rei snorted in annoyance from somewhere to my left. The government controlled everything from the internet to the military now that the suits had been created. Everything was monitored by President Treize Khushrenada, the creator of the military suits and the Mobile Suit Foundation.

"Our mission is nothing but peace, to learn our abilities and use them to help others and the planet. Not as weapons in war," I argued. Sweat formed on my forehead and I fought the urge to wipe it away. "We will not use our powers to force the Average to do what you want."

"So you're trying to keep your information away from the rest of the world," Governor Brewer said. My eyes closed and I tried to take a deep breath. Rei sniffed and I could picture the modelesque girl snarling as she'd done often lately. "Trying to keep your "good" limited to yourselves?"

"No, we aren't. The MS pilots aren't required to register themselves or the weapons they carry. We don't believe that our situation is any different," I said gripping the sides of the podium until my knuckles turned white. Outside I could hear noises from protesters trying to push for peace and freedom of the Elementals. "MS soldiers carry modified weapons that connect to their nervous system making them steadier and more accurate than any other weapon. I find that to be more of a risk to Average's than Elementals."

"Their weapons can be taken away. What can we do with you? There isn't a way to strip you of your elemental powers." Governor Brewer smirked. Even the curls in my hair seemed to deflate as I floundered for a reply. "People have escaped prison because of these elemental powers."

"We can't control the actions of others, just the Elemental Peacekeepers. I can't imagine all of your MS pilots are sane and capable of keeping the peace," I retorted feeling my face burn. She had me and she knew it. Our group couldn't-wouldn't control everyone with an elemental power. There were simply too many in the world.

"If you are referring to the incident in Florida, that wasn't our fault. We hadn't taken into account the psychological ramifications to piloting the suits and connecting directly to someone's brain. There really isn't a foolproof way of analyzing a person's future actions," President Khushrenada said. He made his way down the center aisle. I tried to shade my eyes in an attempt to see him. Icy blue eyes locked with mine as he ran a hand through sandy hair. "Not yet anyways."

I frowned swallowing hard. "That could be said for the Elementals. We may be a group trying to keep peace, but we can't control everyone."

"Understandable Miss?" He took a stand beside Governor Brewer arms folded behind his back.

"Chibiusa," I scowled, eyes narrowed. President Khushrenada looked every bit the perfect gentleman in a fine grey suit pressed to perfection. A small handkerchief hung folded in his pocket near the pin on his lapel that showed the symbol for the Khushrenada Peace Foundation. His shoes shone as if they'd just been polished and he wore snowy gloves that should have been marked with dust and dirt from the Arizona desert.

"Miss Chibiusa. We are merely suggesting that the Control Act would better defend when Elementals grow crazy," he explained. "We could track anyone that went rogue. Find murderers and such. Our mission, as always and very similar to your own, is nothing but peace." I thought about the Romafeller Faction that had been linked to several Average and Elemental killings lately. Treize was not a man of peace.

I took another deep breath smoothing out my face. "It isn't proven that the powers make people crazy. That was one case."

"Either way it would be important for the world to be able to know who had powers, wouldn't you say Miss Chibiusa?" His voice sounded so condescending that I wanted to hit him, something I wasn't really known for.

"The way you would register a sex offender, or a rapist?" I snarled doing my best to keep my tone in check. Treize always seemed so smooth when he spoke, never breaking his perfect gentle tone.

"I can see how you could take it that way," he replied. "A way that was not intended. Perhaps we should evaluate this again. Find a better way to agree on the subject. Maybe next time Mr. Chiba can attend the meeting since he has been labeled your leader."

I closed my eyes. "I hope he does attend. Darien knows more about the statistics than I do."

"Understandably. We shall reconvene at a later date then," President Khushrenada announced turning to the group of press, congressmen and women and then me. "Perhaps we shall come up with a better solution."

"I hope so," I said not listening to the rest of what was said in the meeting. People started flooding out of the building.

"You did good up there," Rei Hino said, but her sharp features held a frown. I wasn't sure if she was lying to me, something the religious priestess wasn't known for, or if she was upset with the disappearance of Darien and Relena Peacecraft, the face behind the Elemental Peace Movement. I tried to picture the soft spoken woman, barely a year older than myself. Her emerald green eyes and tawny hair graced any picture or commercial that had to do with Elemental Peace.

"I did horribly. Has anyone heard from Darien or Relena?" Rei shook her head. "You should have gone up there."

Rei frowned. "You knew the information and statistics better than I. You did all the research with Darien and you know I hate to say that." She winked in an attempt to make me feel better. It didn't.

"You are better at speaking in front of crowds." She waited while I gathered the notes I'd quickly scribbled when I realized Darien was missing. Coming off the steps of the podium I tripped falling face first onto the hard floor.

"That's true," Rei admitted bending over to help me up. A few chuckled in the room but Rei didn't. She'd seen my awkward movements before.

My eyes narrowed as I brushed myself off. "What the fudge Rei? Where are they?"

"Why can't you cuss like normal people?" She sighed rolling violet eyes.

I tried to hide a smile knowing how much my curse words annoyed her. "Everyone cusses. I'd rather be different."

"Everyone knows what you mean." She handed me an icepack from a cooler. I placed it over my nose sniffing in hope that it wouldn't bleed. "Why not just say it?"

"I don't want to say it. That's what makes me different," I replied walking with her out into the hazy day. The sky had turned slate grey in the warm afternoon heat. I felt sticky as humidity formed in the air, a change from the dry heat we'd been experiencing lately.

"Are you worried about Darien?" She whispered following me to the mini car I drove. We both took seats before I would answer. I tried not to worry, tried not to wonder where he was or what he was doing.

"I don't know." The words came out more shaken than I'd intended them to.

"You were fine until last year. Now all of the sudden you barely talk," Rei said, her voice so soft I barely heard the words. I wondered if she still liked him. She'd dated him before.

My heart caught in my throat. As much as I didn't want to admit it we had grown distant since he'd taken on the Elemental Peace Movement and I'd graduated high school. "He's busy. I'm busy. We're all busy trying to keep ahead of the Control Act. He hasn't even remembered my nineteenth birthday."

"You're birthday isn't until September. It's July," she informed me. We pulled away from the capital building and onto the busy streets. I didn't like driving in the large city, the roads packed with people.

"I know, but he hasn't said anything." My heart sunk. Darien had been my first crush, and my first boyfriend. He'd been my first kiss and first date. We'd grown so far apart I wasn't sure there was going to be any more firsts since I was saving myself for marriage.

"Maybe he's got a surprise for you," she said holding onto the dashboard with white knuckles. Rei hated my driving. She hated anything she couldn't control, even her control over fire.

"Do you know something I don't know? In case you haven't been here all day, he hasn't been around," I grumbled pulling onto the busy freeway. Protesters seemed to stand at every corner holding signs against the Control Act or the Mobile Suit Foundation.

"I know. They aren't answering their phones. I get it and no. I don't know anything you don't," Rei replied rubbing her temples. She'd heard me whine about Darien enough lately. I could tell she was reaching the end of her patience. I needed to talk to my other friends, Mina or Lita.

"Where the heck are they?" I asked myself. We started the two hour drive back to Prescott as rain began pouring.

"Serena stop," she whined. "I know you're worried, but enough is enough."

The rain on the windshield made if difficult to see. Water flooded the roadways and people began slow driving as if they'd never driven in their life. Dust mingled with the water forming mud in areas, pools of water splashing around us. The wipers squealed filling the silence. Rei reached over flipping on the radio, but I tuned the sound out. Wind whipped the car making it difficult to steer.

"Where's Ami when we need her?" I whined thinking about my Water Elemental friend. She could clear the roadways making it easier to drive.

"Where's anyone today?" Rei replied turning up the volume to drown out my voice. My eyes narrowed as we drove on in silence leaving Phoenix far behind.


End file.
